A development company has proposed

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct70% picked this

   treats a sufficient condition for the airport’s being built as a

   Why this is right

   A majority of residents' favoring the airport is identified as a guarantee that the airport will be built (a sufficient condition). When the author goes on to act like, "If a majority doesn't approve, then it won't be built", she is acting like their approval is necessary. Any time we see this answer, we check whether there was any conditional logic in the argument and then see if the author reasoned through that rule in an illegal backwards or opposite fashion.

   Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   70%
2. B

   Bad Conclusion / Premise Match7% picked this

   concludes that something must be true, because most people believe it

   Does the conclusion say that something must be true? Nope. It says something is "unlikely" to be true. We can eliminate without reading the rest. However, the rest is also wrong. Nothing in the premises said, "Most people believe that the airport will probably not be built". It said, "Most people don't favor the the idea of the airport being built".

   7%
3. C

   Bad Conclusion Match14% picked this

   concludes, on the basis that a certain event is unlikely to occur, that the event

   Does the author conclude that an event will not occur? Nope. She concludes that an event is unlikely to occur.

   14%
4. D

   Weak Impact5% picked this

   fails to consider whether people living near Dalton would favor building

   This starts to hint at the idea that there's more than one way to get that airport built. Maybe the local residents don't favor the proposal, so THAT rule won't get triggered, but there still might be other ways the airport gets built. However, in order for this answer to do much, we'd have to add on our own idea that, "If people nearby favor the airport, the airport will be built". Without that rule, this answer doesn't pose much of an objection.

   5%
5. E

   Weak Impact4% picked this

   overlooks the possibility that a new airport could benefit the

   Just like (D), this hints at some other possible reason or consideration that might be a different way to trigger building the airport, but we don't know that the faint possibility that the airport could benefit the economy would change anything.

   4%